A push on the top bunk and handprints on a boy's chest
An anonymous caller tells Art Bell an “entity attack story” from his childhood. At about age eight, he was lying awake on the top bunk of a bunk bed in a house shared with his grandparents and father. He says he felt a presence and was pushed hard on the chest, bouncing into the ceiling. He says his father came in after he called out and found two handprints on his chest. The caller then offers his own theory that such things come from within and are generated by fear. The host closes the call after a discussion of fear and love.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 1998.mp3”, starting at 3:43:13). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
A caller tells Art Bell he has an “entity attack story” and says he has a theory about it, but will describe the events first. He says that when he was about eight years old, he was living in a house with his grandparents, his father, and his father’s ex-wife. He was in his room and frightened, mainly of the dark, so his father left the bedroom door open with the hall light on. Lying awake on the top bunk of a bunk bed, still afraid to fall asleep, he says he felt a presence, something he says he has felt many times in his life. He says whatever it was pushed him on the chest, hard enough that he bounced off the bed and hit the ceiling. He notes the ceiling was close above the bunk and over a “pretty bouncy mattress.” He says he was frozen with fear and could barely yell. When he called out, his father came in. He told his father something had pushed him and that his chest hurt. He says his father opened his shirt and found two handprints on his chest. Asked what his father said, he replies that his family had always been very open to such occurrences. The host remarks that the handprints [quote withheld] The caller then gives his own theory: that such things come “from within,” that a person’s perception of a thing’s existence gives it the ability to act physically, and that it “preys on fear,” which is why it comes to children. He moves into a discussion of fear, love, and religion. The host ends the call with nothing resolved.
Reported events, in order
- 0:24
The caller tells the host he has an “entity attack story” and says he has a theory about what happened, but will tell the events first.
- 0:26
He says that when he was about eight years old, he was living in a house with his grandparents, his father, and his father’s ex-wife.
- 0:37
He says he was in the room and was scared, mainly because of the dark, so his father left the bedroom door open with the hall light on.
- 0:55
He says he lay awake for a while on the top bunk of a bunk bed, still afraid and reluctant to fall asleep.
- 1:04
He says he felt a presence, something he states he has felt many times in his life.
- 1:24
He says whatever it was pushed him on the chest.
- 1:51
He says he bounced off the bed and hit the ceiling, which he notes was close above the bunk over a bouncy mattress.
- 1:51
He says he was frozen with fear and could barely yell.
- 2:03
He says his father knew he was scared and came into the room. He told his father that something pushed him and that it hurt his chest.
- 2:14
He says his father opened his shirt and that there were two handprints on his chest.
- 2:32
Asked what his father said, he says his family had always been very open to these types of occurrences.
- 2:51
He then gives his own theory: that such things come “from within,” that a person’s perception of its existence allows it to act physically, and that it preys on fear, hence its frequency with children.
- 3:49
He moves into a discussion of fear, “perfect love,” and religious belief. The host ends the call with the event unresolved.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 1:04
The caller says he felt a presence in the room while lying awake on the top bunk, and says he has felt similar presences many times in his life.
- observation· 1:25
The caller says whatever was there pushed him on the chest, and that he felt the push rather than a light touch.
- observation· 1:51
The caller says the push made him bounce off the bed and strike the ceiling, which he notes was close above the bunk and over a bouncy mattress.
- observation· 2:21
The caller says his father opened his shirt and found two handprints on his chest.
- interpretation· 1:22
The caller states his belief that the thing that pushed him was a spirit.
- interpretation· 3:17
The caller’s theory is that such things start within the person, act physically because of the person’s awareness of them, and prey on fear, which he says is why they often come to children.
- interpretation· 3:23
The caller concludes that what is of fear [quote withheld]
- host statement· 2:29
The host asserts that the reported handprints verify the caller’s story of being pushed.
- host statement· 3:41
The host asserts that fear builds on itself, feeds on itself, and that the person creates the event.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
This is a firsthand, consistent story with some concrete detail. But there is no checkable place, date, or documentation, and a plain in-bed explanation (a frightened child lying awake, a springy mattress, a low ceiling) fits the central event reasonably well. The claim that a second person saw the marks lifts it slightly above a bare assertion, but nothing is checkable.
Evidence for and against
- A firsthand story of the event itself, not one heard from someone else.
- A concrete sequence with sensory detail: his age ([quote withheld]), the bedroom door left open with the hall light on, the top bunk, the ceiling contact, the chest pain, and his father entering afterward.
- The caller reports a physical mark seen by a second person ([quote withheld]), and he separates what he perceived from what he concluded ([quote withheld]).
- No place, town, year, or date is given, so nothing in the story can be checked. The only setting given is [quote withheld]
- The event is recalled from about age eight, decades before the telling, and the passage describing the push and the presence is fragmentary in the transcript.
- A very ordinary in-bed explanation fits. He was lying in bed frightened and reluctant to sleep ([quote withheld]), and he himself notes a “pretty bouncy mattress” under a low ceiling.
- The automatic transcript breaks up the story between 3:44:07 and 3:44:45, and one line in that stretch is mislabeled as the host, so some of the wording is not reliable.
- The phrase [quote withheld] is likely a transcription error for being fully awake, but the transcript cannot confirm this.
- 0:26
- 1:03
- 2:21
What the model inferred (not said on air): Scoring by part: source proximity 20/25 (direct witness, but recalled from childhood); specificity 12/20 (several concrete details, but no place, date, or checkable specifics); internal consistency 13/20 (a coherent sequence, though the middle of the story is garbled in the transcript); alternative explanations 6/20 (an ordinary in-bed explanation fits the push and the ceiling contact quite easily); calibration 11/15 (he separates what he felt from what he believes and offers his own theory). Total 62.
The story rests entirely on the caller’s word, plus a claimed secondhand sighting of the marks by his father. The father never speaks on air, and his words are not quoted. That places it in the scoring guide’s range for claimed witnesses with no examined evidence. No outside check was performed.
Evidence for and against
- The caller claims another person saw a physical mark at the time ([quote withheld]).
- His family is described as open to such occurrences, though no family member confirms on air.
- The marks are gone and were never photographed, measured, or documented. Nothing physical remains to examine.
- The one claimed second observer, the caller’s father, does not speak on air, and his remarks are not quoted in detail.
- No location, date, or record is supplied that could be checked.
- It is not stated whether anyone besides the father saw the marks, or what the father actually said about them.
- 2:21
What the model inferred (not said on air): A score of 11 to 25 (“other witnesses claimed”), toward the lower end because the marks were short-lived and no documentation is claimed to exist.
The core elements are a frightened eight-year-old, an unseen attack in bed, being thrown into the ceiling, and handprints left on his chest. They are truly unsettling for a listener. It is not extreme. The being is never seen or described as demonic, and the story does not build further.
Evidence for and against
- The setting is a child alone in bed in the dark, an intrusion into a safe space.
- Reported physical contact hard enough to throw him against the ceiling.
- Physical marks left on a child’s body: [quote withheld]
- The story offers no explanation or resolution of the event.
- The presence is never seen, described, or given a hostile character beyond the push itself.
- The story is short and ends in abstract talk of fear, love, and religion rather than lasting threat.
- The host’s responses are conversational rather than alarmed.
- The story’s brevity and its drift into general theory limit how much dread it builds.
- 1:24
- 2:21
What the model inferred (not said on air): Rated in the middle to upper range because of the child-in-bed setting, the reported physical contact, and the marks. It is held back by the lack of lasting dread, visible threat, or injury beyond the chest marks.
A familiar ghost-story setup, an attack in bed with marks on the body, with one distinctive physical detail (bouncing off the top bunk into the ceiling) and an unusual theory attached, that the event is generated from within. Provisional, since a comparison with the rest of the archive is not available here.
Evidence for and against
- The specific detail of being pushed hard enough to bounce off the top bunk into a low ceiling, with the caller’s own note about the bouncy mattress, is a distinctive physical image.
- The caller’s framing of the event as generated by fear and self-manifesting ([quote withheld]) is an unusual way to explain it.
- The basic setup, an unseen force pressing on someone in bed at night, is a common motif in this kind of story, and the host notes he has [quote withheld] full of similar calls.
- Handprints or marks left on the body are an established element of the genre.
- No measure of how rare the motifs are, or how similar this is to other stories in the archive, is available for this single story.
- 1:51
- 3:23
What the model inferred (not said on air): Placed in the middle: a recognizable setup plus a distinctive detail, rather than a wholly unfamiliar kind of event.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.65 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s own firsthand recollection, given as an adult about an event at about age eight.; A claimed second observer (his father) of the handprints on his chest, who does not speak on air.; No photograph, record, medical examination, or documentation of the marks.; No named place, date, or third party mentioned.. The originality score blends the model's score (55) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- A bodily jerk or similar sensation while falling asleep could account for the reported push. This is a possibility to consider, not a conclusion. · The caller says he was lying in bed frightened and reluctant to fall asleep ([quote withheld]). In that state, a sudden involuntary jerk or sense of pressure at the start of sleep can feel like an outside push.
- A sudden body movement on a springy bunk mattress could produce the reported bounce and contact with the ceiling without anything outside causing it. · The caller himself notes [quote withheld] so a sharp reflex movement could plausibly carry him into a low ceiling.
- The marks on the chest could have been impressions from the boy’s own hands or from bedding while he lay with the covers pulled over his head. The transcript offers no examination of the marks. · The marks are reported only as seen by the father in the dark bedroom after the event. No examination of the handprints is described in the transcript.
What stands out
The story combines a claimed physical mark on the body, handprints seen by the caller’s father, with the caller’s own explanation that the event was generated by his fear rather than caused by an outside being. The host then endorses that theory on air.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.